Demon's Trust (The Chronicles of Arcayos #1) - Raven Dark Page 0,32

talk, her arms crossed.

Good girl.

My cock gives a hard jerk at the thought that she’s keeping quiet because she has a thing for me. She shouldn’t have a thing for me, and if she does, I should be wanting to burn it out of her with fire. I do, but I also need it too. I need her to want me the way a starving man wants food.

The Jacksons tell the captain and Cassidy Morgan about the three “victims” I’ve killed.

“Fuck,” the captain snarls. “This serial killing son of a bitch thinks he can play judge, jury, and executioner in my fucking city?”

The hatred in his voice takes me aback.

After another minute of discussing the scene, the Jacksons, the captain, and my Cassidy head back toward the primary scene.

My Cassidy. Shit. As they say these days, I’ve got it bad.

The three of them are talking amongst themselves. About me. One of the Jacksons asks her if she thinks I’m targeting her.

The protectiveness in his voice causes me to growl low in my throat. Lucky he didn’t touch her, or I’d have ripped him apart.

Moments later, a few hundred feet from the crime scene, I crouch low on the roof of a high bandstand.

The good police captain thinks I’m a serial killer, does he? My lips peel back in a snarl.

I’ve heard that term a few times in my year on Earth. Those words—serial killer—tend to strike fear and panic in humans, sometimes turning investigations into witch hunts. This isn’t going to make my job easier. Not when every demon’s head I chop off will only send the city after me with pitchforks.

He’d said “my city.” Captain Colburn’s protectiveness of Chance causes an unwelcome surge of respect to rear up, mixing with the urge to show him my real face and scare the fuck out of him.

He’s going to be a problem. I’ll need to deal with him.

I’ll need to handle Cassidy Morgan too. Her mistrust of me can’t continue. But all of that will have to wait.

I leap to the ground. The bandstand is closed, so there are no humans around to see me. Making my way toward the main road out of the park, I flick my hand covertly at my side. A surge of supernatural energy pulses around me.

A heartbeat ago, I was a demon with red eyes in a black cloak. Now, I look as human as anyone else.

At the side of the road, I put my fingers between my teeth and whistle loudly. One of dozens of black caravans with a taxi light on the roof stops, and I climb in.

It’s still strange, getting into one of these instead of into a horse-drawn carriage, with the driver separated from me by a window instead of sitting high up on a bench behind horses. The inside of the vehicle reeks of exhaust, and I clear my throat.

I flick the light on the roof on and off a few times, enjoying the electrical glow and the ease with which it flicks on. Electrical light fascinates me.

“Where to, pal?” The driver gives me an odd look, and I stop playing with the light switch. He looks as grouchy as most of the cabbies I’ve dealt with in Chance, as if he’d rather be at home watching those pointless films on his television.

“The Red Fox on Twenty-Third. It’s—”

“I know where it is. You think I got here yesterday? You got money? That’s a thirty dollar trip across town with traffic.”

“Of course.” I reach into what was my cloak pocket, and is now the pocket of a long, black trench coat.

I take out a heavy silver ring with a red ruby and slip it on my finger. Hold the ring in front of his eyes, turning it until the ruby glows, and he gives a little jolt. Then I dig out a single dollar bill, all that I have left to my name.

“I am giving you a hundred dollars,” I say in a voice deepened with power. I hand him the piece of paper. The one-dollar bill changes into a hundred.

The driver’s eyes go wide.

“You will take me to The Red Fox and you will tell no one I was there. Do you understand?”

“I understand, Master.”

The man’s mind is suddenly there, a knot of thoughts that are not mine. His thoughts are slightly dazed, malleable as water. Easy to control.

An electrical current races through my body, bringing a rush of adrenaline and a surge of increased strength. My senses are suddenly